US To Send Tanks And Troops To Syria In Major Policy Reversal

The U.S. government is planning to send dozens of armoured military units to protect oil fields in northeastern Syria, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.

The White House is also considering leaving about 500 troops in the region, the publication said.

What Happened

In early October, President Trump announced that the U.S. would withdraw all its troops from war-torn Syria.

The withdrawal increased tensions in the Middle East as Turkish forces advanced against the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), a key U.S. ally in the fight against ISIS, and securing the country’s regional interests.

According to the latest reports, it seems that military officials have convinced the President to reverse his decision.

What’s Next

The latest military hardware and troop deployment will have the purpose of securing eastern oil fields from the ISIS, Syrian Government, and Iran, sources from the White House told NewsWeek.

Some analysts are speculating that the U.S. involvement in the region could increase more than before.

"[The deployment] would mean walling off eastern Syria as a U.S. zone,” Aaron Stein, director of the Middle East program at the Foreign Policy Research Institute in Washington, told The Guardian. “You would have to protect it from the air. You have to supply it and then you have got to protect the road, presumably from Iraq. You can easily see a scenario where we end up with more troops in Syria than we started off with.”

"Perhaps it is time for the Kurds to start heading to the Oil Region!” Trump said in a tweet after his meeting with Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) leader Mazloum Abdi.